Wall-mounted folding clothes dryer

ABSTRACT

A wall-mounted folding clothes dryer adapted to be mounted flush with a bathroom wall having a boxlike receptacle enclosed by a pair of doors on whose inner sidewalls and doors are a pair of spaced flanges forming opposed trackways that are aligned but spaced from each other to permit closing of the doors. A collapsible frame is formed by horizontal rods joined together by pivot links with rollers secured to the ends of the rods and rotatably mounted in the trackways. Hinge elements are provided with a portion that swings into the aforementioned gap between the tracks when the doors are in the open position to provide an uninterrupted trackway for the rollers of the collapsible frame.

United States Patent [72] Inventor GeorgeR.Stoltz NorthMiami,F1a. [21]AppLNo. 60,439' [22] Filed Aug. 3, 1970 [45] Patented Oct. 12,1971 [73]Assignee Russell Aluminum Corporation MiamLlla.

[54] WALL-MOUNTED FOLDING CLOTHES DRYER 3Chlnu,8Drlw1ngFlgs.

[52] U.S.Cl .Q. 2ll/1.3, 211/105 51lnt.C1..............................................,...,......A47b53/00so 211 13, 105

[56] ReferencesCited UNITED STATES PATENTS 237,073 1/1881 Wing 211/1.3590,983 10/1897 Herman........................ 211/105X PrimaryExaminer-Nile C. Byers, .Ir. Attorney-Salvatore G. Militana ABSTRACT: Awall-mounted folding clothes dryer adapted to be mounted flush with abathroom wall having a boxlike receptacle enclosed by a pair of doors onwhose inner sidewalls and doors are a pair of spaced flanges forming0pposed trackways that are aligned but spaced from each other to permitclosing of the doors. A collapsible frame is formed by horizontal rodsjoined together by pivot links with rollers secured to the ends of therods and rotatably mounted in the trackways. Hinge elements are providedwith a portion that swings into the aforementioned gap between thetracks when the doors are in the open position to provide anuninterrupted trackway for the rollers of the collapsible frame.

PATENIEflncnzlsn 9.612.284

SHEET 1 UF 3 H65 GEQEGE RSTOLTZ jam 9. than AT TOR/V5 Y IN VE N 70/?PATENTEU OCT 1 2 IBYI SHEET 2 [IF 3 INVENTOR GEORGE R. STOLTZ l Ami Q AT'TOR/VEY WALL-MOUNTED FOLDING CIDTHES DRYER CROSSREFERENCE TO RELATEDAPPLICATIONS This application is an improvement of U.S. application Ser.No. 850,729, filed on Aug. 18, 1969, by Irving Ruina for ImprovedFolding Indoor Clothes Dryer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to collapsibleclothes dryers that are mounted on a wall in a house preferably in thebathroom or laundry room. The present clothes dryers that are of likeconstruction do not provide a trackway for guiding the rollers that aremounted at the ends of the horizontal rods forming the collapsible rackon which the clothes are hung. Consequently, when extending the racks ofthe present clothes dryers, one must withdraw them carefully to preventcausing the pivot pins from binding or the links from bending if forcedoutwardly in an uneven position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a wall-mountedfolding clothes dryer with a trackway mounted on the front walls whichoperate as doors. In a preferred embodiment, the trackways have flangeswhich prevent rollers mounted on the ends of the clothes supporting rodsforming the rack from leaving the trackways, while the trackways arecontinuous from the receptacle in which the collapsed rack is encased tothe ends of the front walls on which the rack is extended to itsclothes-supporting position.

Therefore, a principal object of the present invention is to provide awall-mounted folding clothes dryer with continuous tracltways on eachside thereof when the dryer with continuous traclrways on each sidethereof when the dryer is in its extended position permitting rollersthat support the rack to roll to its open position.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a wallmountedfolding clothes dryer with hinge elements that swing into a gap formedbetween aligned trackways mounted on the wall of the receptacle whichhouses the rack and on the front wall or doors, the gap between saidtrackways being necessary to permit the closing of the doors when therack is completely housed.

With these and other objects in view, he invention will be bestunderstood from a consideration of the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings fonning a part ofthis specification, with the understanding, however, that the inventionis not confined to any strict conformity with the showing of thedrawings but may be changed or modified, so long as such changes ormodifications mark no material departure from the salient features ofthe invention as expressed in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a clothes dryer constructed inaccordance with my invention shown mounted on a wall.

FIG. 2 is a similar view showing the dryer in its open positions.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a crowsectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a similar view taken along the line 5--5 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along the line 6-6 ofFIG. 4.

FIG. 1 is a similar view with the dryer shown in an open position.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

Referring to the drawings wherein like numera s are used to designatesimilar parts throughout the several views, the numeral l0 refers to myfolding indoor clothes dryer consisting of an open front boxlikeenclosure mounted on a wall as shown by FIGS. 1 and 2, having a top wall11, a bottom wall I2 and rear wall 13, all extruded as a single unitwith upper and lower front wall flanges 14 extending along the frontedges portions of the top and bottom walls 11 and 12. End walls 15 areprovided with upper and lower tab portions I6 that are fastened to thetop and bottom walls 12 and 13 by rivets l7. Fastened to the lower frontwall flangel4 is a U- shaped bar 18 for supporting towels and thelike-To each forward edge of the end walls 15 there is hinged as at 19,a front wall or door 20 that encloses the opening and provides access tothe clothes-hanging structure of my device III as is explained in detailhereinafter. As shown by FIG. I and 2, my clothes dryer 10 is fittedinto an opening in a wall of a room in a house preferably the bathroom,over a bathtub or in a shower stall and fastened therein by screws 21extending through openings in the rear wall 13. The front wall flanges14 are intended to lie flush with the wall of the room on which my dryer10 is mounted.

The extruded front walls 20 are provided with a flange 22.

and 23 extending inwardly along the upper and lower edges respectivelythereof. Above the lower flange 23 is a trackT consisting of a pair offlanges 24 along the free edge of which is a lip portion 25 extending ina directiontoward each other. Mounted on the inner surface of the endwalls I5 and in alignment with the track T is a further track T inalignment with track T and identical in construction therewith. However,in order to permit the front walls 20 to swing on the hinges l9 andbring the front walls 20 to their completely closed position, the trackT is terminated as at 36 in spaced relation to the hinged edge portionof the front walls 20. As a result, when the doors or front walls 20 areswung to their open position there will be a gap at slot 36 between theends of the tracks T and T.

As is explained in detail hereinafter rollers 26 are rotatablypositioned in the tracks T and T' and means have been provided to permitthe rollers 26 to roll from one track to the other consisting of a hingeelement 27 having a pair of arms 28.

and 29 set at an acute angle with each other and pivotally mounted as at30 to the lower front wall flange 23. The arm 28 is slotted as at 31along most of its length, with a slide pin 32 that is secured to thebottom wall 12 and slidably positioned in the slot 31. Adjacent the freeend of the arm 28 the slot 3| is provided with tits 33 which retain thepin 32 at the end position of the slot 31 and the front walls 20 attheir open position when swung outwardly. The arm 29 is provided with aflange 33 on whose inner edge portion is upwardly extending lip portion34 forming an extension of the lower flange 24 and lip 25 in the gapformed by the ends of the tracks T and T when the front walls 20 haveswung to an open position as shown by FIG. 7.

A collapsible rack R consists of a plurality of tubular mem bers or bars37 extending between the end walls 15 and the front walls 20 when in anopen position with rollers 26 and 26' rotatably mounted on the ends ofthe tubular members 37 in the tracks T and T. The lips 25 of the tracksT and T in addition to the flanges 33 and lips 34 of the hinge elements27 maintain the rollers 26 in the tracks while the upper flange 24supports the rollers 26'. Each of the tubular members 37 is joined to anadjacent tubular member 37 by means of a link 38- whose ends areprovided with bores 39, the links 38 being shorter in length than thedistance between the top and bottom walls 11 ad 12 to permit the housingof the collapsed rack R as shown by FIG. 4.

Also mounted on the inner surface of the front walls 20 is an extrudedseat S for a latch L having an arcuate bore 40 slotted as at 4!. Thelatch L is provided with a cylindrical portion 42 rotatably mounted inthe arcuate bore 40 and an arm portion 43 extending through he slot 40terminatingin a nose portion 44 which is adapted to engage a similarnose portion 45 mounted on the free end of a fixed latch portion 46 thatis secured at its other end to the rear wall 13 as at 47. In order topermit the unlatching of the nose portion 44 from the nose portion 45,the front walls 20 are each provided with an opening 48 that is normallyenclosed by a push'rnember 49 secured to arm 43 of the latch L by adepending arcuate member 50.

As can be readily noted, when it is desired to disengage the latch L inorder to swing the front walls 20 to an open position, all that need bedone is to insert ones finger into the openings 48 and force the pushmembers or tabs 49 inwardly to cause the latch L to pivot upwardly andthe nose members 44 and 45 to become disengaged allowing the doors 20 tobe swung to their open position.

When the front walls 20 have been swung to their completely openedposition with the end walls and front walls in coplanar relation, thetracks T and T will be aligned and the gap 36 spanned by the flange 33.Now upon grasping the lower and frontrnost tubular member 37 and pullingit forwardly along the tracks T the links 38 will swing the uppertubular members 37 downwardly until their respective rollers 26' engagethe upper flanges 24 of the tracks 1''. With the rollers 26 of the lowertubular members 37 leaving the tracks T' and rolling into the tracks Tand the upper rollers 26 rolling on the upper flanges 24, the rack R canthen be extended along the full length of the front walls 20 as shown byFIG. 2 in position to receive cloth to be hung on the tubular members37. To return the rack R to its housed position, all that need be doneis to push the outennost lower tubular member 37 inwardly until all ofthe tubular members 37 are within the confines of the boxlike housing assown by FIG. 4. Then the front walls 20 are swung to their closedposition at which position the nose portion 44 will impinge on the noseportion 45, to cause the latch L to pivot upwardly until the noseportions 44, 45 become interengaged and the doors 20 locked in theirclosed 'tion.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

l. A wall-mounted folding clothes dryer comprising an open boxlikereceptacle having sidewalls adapted to be mounted within a recess in awall, a pair of front walls forming doors hingedly mounted on its openedside, substantially aligned track means mounted on said sidewalls andsaid front walls, said aligned tracks terminating in substantial spacedrelation with each other forming a gap to permit said front walls toswing to their closed position, a plurality of horizontal bars extendingbetween said sidewalls, links connecting adjacent horizontal bars,rollers mounted on ends of said bars and rotatably mounted in saidtracks and further track means operatively connected to said doorsspanning said gap when said doors are swung to an open position wherebysaid rollers are permitted to roll along said aligned tracks as saidrack is brought to its extended position.

2. The structure as recited by claim 1 wherein said aligned trackscomprise a vertically disposed web portion, a pair of horizontallydisposed flange portions mounted one above the other in spaced relationto each other forming a trackway and further flange portions mounted onthe free ends of said horizontal flange portions and extending in adirection toward each other to contain said rollers in said trackway.

3. The structure as recited by claim 2 wherein said further track meanscomprise a hinge having a pair of am portions pivotally mounted on afront portion of said receptacle adjacent said sidewalls, one of saidarms having a slotted portion,

a pivot pin mounted on each of said front walls and slidably positionedin said slotted portion, said other arm having a horizontal and avertical portion mounted at the free end thereof in alignment with thelower of said horizontal flange portion and said further flange portionwhen said front walls are swung to their open position.

1. A wall-mounted folding clothes dryer comprising an open boxlikereceptacle having sidewalls adapted to be mounted within a recess in awall, a pair of front walls forming doors hingedly mounted on its openedside, substantially aligned track means mounted on said sidewalls andsaid front walls, said aligned tracks terminating in substantial spacedrelation with each other forming a gap to permit said front walls toswing to their closed position, a plurality of horizontal bars extendingbetween said sidewalls, links connecting adjacent horizontal bars,rollers mounted on ends of said bars and rotatably mounted in saidtracks and further track means operatively connected to said doorsspanning said gap when said doors are swung to an open position wherebysaid rollers are permitted to roll along said aligned tracks as saidrack is brought to its extended position.
 2. The structure as recited byclaim 1 wherein said aligned tracks comprise a vertically disposed webportion, a pair of horizontally disposed flange portions mounted oneabove the other in spaced relation to each other forming a trackway andfurther flange portions mounted on the free ends of said horizontalflange portions and extending in a direction toward each other tocontain said rollers in said trackway.
 3. The structure as recited byclaim 2 wherein said further track means comprise a hinge having a pairof arm portions pivotally mounted on a front portion of said receptacleadjacent said sidewalls, one of said arms having a slotted portion, apivot pin mounted on each of said front walls and slidably positioned insaid slotted portion, said other arm having a horizontal and a verticalportion mounted at the free end thereof in alignment with the lower ofsaid horizontal flange portion and said further flange portion when saidfront walls are swung to their open position.